


Playing the Part

by Timeskipped



Category: AI: The Somnium Files (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Major Spoilers, onesided ota/iris, psa: so sejima fucking sucks, takes place during/after Mizuki Route
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-30
Updated: 2019-11-30
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:08:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21621979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Timeskipped/pseuds/Timeskipped
Summary: So Sejima from an outside angle.Or; congressmen are liars, and So Sejima will lie to become someone he’s not, even if it means manipulating everyone who cared about Iris Sagan.
Comments: 12
Kudos: 82





	Playing the Part

**Author's Note:**

> I hate So but I find his fate in Iris's body fascinating

The road is illuminated by the streetlights, rushing past in a blur of white. Saito’s going just a little bit over the speed limit—not enough to be suspicious, but enough to go faster than he would otherwise, to get to the dark, abandoned Kabasaki district as soon as possible. Still, he has time to kill (ha!) and what better way to do it than taunting the person who made his life miserable.

“Say, do you know what it’s like,” he turns back to face So, “to have your own mind poison you?” He smiles, a grin that hides everything he’s thought of his father throughout all these long years. His father squints back in confusion, eyes drooping closed even as he struggles to keep them open.

“What did you do…?” the man breathes, as the energy within him drains. The sedation is working perfectly. Saito’s plan wills him to be silent and still, and it’s just so easy to look at his father’s face through the eyes of the girl who is, he assumes, his half-sister.

“Be seeing you, Dad,” he smirks. So’s eyes widen even as his head hits the seat behind him when Saito makes a sharp turn, turning away from So to watch the road.

“No… No…” His voice chokes with an anger that doesn’t quite reach his tone.

Saito grins. It’s so easy to kill him, to drug him under the guise of being that woman, _Manaka’s_ daughter. The daughter of a woman who Saito himself killed. It will continue being easy, as he drives swiftly to the cold storage warehouse, which he knows about from his time inside Renju Okiura, and as he sets up the livestream, and as he cuts his father in half. The plan will work perfectly, because this revenge is crystal clear in Saito’s mind, searing in his heart like an anger that he loves more than his own father ever loved him.

Human bodies are so soft, so fragile. Even his father, a cold, disdainful man, will be effortless to tear through. Easy to cut into, easy to make _burn_ like fireworks, like the pain that sparks whenever Saito pulls out another eyeball.

He laughs loudly, Iris Sagan’s light voice echoing darkly, and makes another turn on the road, coasting smoothly through the streets as they plunge into the darkness of Kabasaki. There, they are alone. It’s So’s fault, really, for taking Saito’s suggestion and blowing up the chemical plant in the first place.

His father’s body drops in the backseat, too heavy to hold himself up.

“You w… won’t get away with this...” So slurs. Saito ignores him.

He just needs to get out of this body before another glitch appears in his vision. The fragments of Iris Sagan’s memories are clear in telling him that she has a brain tumor, and that’s why his brain keeps on trying to destroy itself from the inside out. If nothing else, he can at least pass the terrible thing onto his father before he kills him.

The rest of the ride to the chemical plant is smooth sailing, with no further input from the man in the backseat. Saito turns on the radio, and hums to the tune of a catchy pop song, just like Iris Sagan would.

* * *

Ota sits next to Tesa, who's in her hospital bed. She glared at him, earlier, and told him to be _quiet, please, I’m trying to watch the television._ So he fell silent as asked, fiddling with his fingers. Her one remaining eye doesn’t even glance at him, and it makes him feel sick to think about what lies behind the bandages over her other eye—eye socket, actually—so he watches the news with her instead of thinking.

_“Congressman Sejima’s death has shocked everyone, as has the reveal that he was a criminal involved in the murders of two Tokyo residents and the attempted murder of two more. Still, as our country attempts to overcome this…”_

It’s boring. Ota doesn’t know what to do, or say, or anything. She had just told him to shut up, so he can’t exactly go against her wishes, especially not during such a tough time, but he wants to talk anyway.

He looks at her. She’s wearing a drab hospital gown, for now, and she has bandages wrapped around her head, visible from all angles. She’s still beautiful, though, like a bright star in a gloomy world. Her fingers touch her hair idly, but her eye is trained on the screen near the bed, where the news reporter drones on about the politics of So Sejima. Ota turns back to it as well.

As he does, Tesa makes a low noise; a grunt of realization, Ota would call it, except that Tesa wouldn’t grunt. Maybe a scoff or a small growl would be a better descriptor, Ota thinks. A quiet sound to indicate that she’s noticed something.

“He died, huh,” she says, quietly. Then, she coughs, as if to clear her throat.

Looking at her, he sees a deep frown on her face. Scrambling to find the words to help, Ota smiles awkwardly. “Yeah. I think it was Date who did it… I heard it was self defense, so at least he’s not going to jail. I mean, Mizuki still has him that way, so it’s good.”

Tesa glares at her hands, her lip curling. “I see. How awfully nice.”

That’s when it hits Ota that something is wrong. And not just in the normal, _Tesa was kidnapped and nearly murdered_ way, either. He watches her with wide eyes, for a moment. He feels frozen, his fingers clenching into fists. He thinks about how he went on To-Witter and got all her fans’ signatures and printed them out, just for her, to show how many people cared. He’d given them to her, but she’d seemed so unhappy with it. Everything about her screams that she’s hurting.

“Hey,” he says, “everything’s fine! So is dead, and we’re not in danger anymore! And even if you _were,_ ” Ota grins, puffing out his chest, “I’d protect you. Just like I did before, right? You saw the livestream.”

Tesa’s blue eye is like an endless void. “I did,” she says, tilting her head in a way that makes it so that he can stare at her eye.

“I totally saved you from dying,” Ota grins, and he even scoots his chair closer to her hoping that she’ll understand his love for her. “You do think I’m a hero, right?” He rubs the back of his head, trying to look both humble and cool, even closing his eyes to not lose his nerve. “Even Mizuki thought so.”

“I suppose you are… my hero,” Tesa says. Ota snaps his eyes open in shock. In the light streaming through the hospital’s windows, she looks radiant, even more radiant than normal. Her lips curl into a grin, her back straight as she looks down at Ota. Her headset is still on her head, and it’s metal shines in the light, giving her an almost haloed effect.

“Tesa…” Ota is blinded by her perfect beauty. “Of course I am. I’ll always come to your rescue.”

“And because of that, you saved this girl, risking your own life. You saved me,” placing her hands in her chest, she closes her eye. She’s silent for another moment, but Ota still watches her. When she opens her eye again, she looks at Ota, seeming more alive than before. “I can’t be an idol anymore, but I still need protection. Protection from the world. Will you do that for me?”

“Absolutely,” Ota says, leaning forward, too enraptured by Tesa to take more note of the smirk that fills her smile. He’s aware that she’s only using him as a bodyguard, but isn’t that better than not being wanted at all, than to simply sit in silence next to her, unwanted and unheard?

The TV in the background continues to play, though Ota pays it no mind. It fades into the background as Tesa explains, in a soft yet powerful voice, her plans for the future.

_“Congressman Sejima’s funds are to go to his only child, Saito Sejima. We hope that Congressman Sejima’s son is mourning in peace, and we wish him the best...”_

* * *

Hitomi nearly takes the day off work when she hears that Iris has been cleared to leave the hospital, but Iris urges her not to do that, so she doesn't. Hitomi smiles at her kindly, seeing the way she’s become so serious, so distant since the trauma.

It hurts Hitomi, to see her like that, but she understands it, too. When she found Manaka’s body, it had its own effect on her, and she changed as well.

The only thing she can do is to patiently attempt to help Iris through it.

Hitomi nervously thinks over the expenses as she takes the plates out and sets them on the table. It’ll be a late dinner, since the doctors want one more check over, but Hitomi can work around that. It’s not quite so easy for her to work around the money issue, though. Hospital bills from the surgery aren’t too bad, all things considered, but they dig into her carefully collected savings for the slightest possibility to save Iris’s life from the tumor.

More than that, her blackmail plans have fallen through her fingers. There’s no saving her life.

It’s this that makes Hitomi nearly collapse, the plates stacked on the table but not yet put in their places. She loses the strength in her body, for just a moment, falling into one of the chairs, and tightly clutching the edge of the table with her left hand. Desperately, futilely, she just wishes she was gripping the cash that So Sejima, the object of her hatred, had promised her.

She doesn’t cry. She doesn’t do anything, because there’s nothing she _can_ do. All of So’s money has gone to his son, someone she’s never even met, and when she heard the news she’d cried all the tears she had bottled up already. Now, she has none left to cry, not even when the hopelessness gets to her. There’s only a pit of despair and rage at the realization that everything is falling apart.

In only a few months, Hitomi will hold her daughter’s hand for the last time. Iris will look at her mother after having survived an attempted murder, but be unable to live through the disease taking priority.

It still gets to her, in the small moments.

Sometimes she gets overwhelmed, because Iris used to be there all the time, loud and cheerful and colorful, but with her at the hospital, Hitomi gets a taste of what life without her child would be like. It’s lonely, cold. Colorless. There are spaces where Hitomi will look at the picture of the Okonomiyaki War, so lovingly dubbed by Iris and Falco, and realize that she’s smiling at the memory. It's a memory that will stick with Hitomi for the rest of her life, even though no more new ones will be made.

When she went to the hospital for the first time since Iris woke from the eye surgery, Iris stared at her with an intensity she’d never seen before. Hitomi doesn’t want that to be one of the last things that she remembers of Iris.

She will make sure Iris is as happy as possible, even with everything that’s happened. To make new memories, as fleeting and small as they may be.

So she pulls herself up. She picks up the plates, smooth and cold, normal and everyday, and she places them on the table, ready for a meal for two, just like always. She puts everything else out, too, except for the food. She’ll make it when she gets Iris, and she’ll smile at her daughter from the kitchen, and maybe receive a grin back. She has to let Iris be happy, for as long as she can be in the future.

It's with that thought that she leaves to pick up Iris.

The car ride to the hospital is quiet, save for the rumbling engine beneath her, and the ride back is only a little less so. Iris seems content to be lost in her thoughts, and Hitomi is okay with that as well, for the start of it.

“I’ll make some food for you when we’re home,” she says, eventually, “whatever you’d like.”

Iris turns her head. Hitomi still can’t get used to the eyepatch over her left eye. They told her it was temporary, until she could get a fake one, but it’s still going to take getting used to.

“Thank you,” Iris says. “I don’t think I’m hungry, though.”

She looks pale, almost sick in the car, the harsh lighting of the streetlights reflecting onto her and making her skin look pure white. Hitomi spots sweat on Iris’s forehead, and furrows her eyebrows in worry as she once again focuses on the street.

“Are you sure? I can always make something for you later if you’d like to rest when we get back.” She bites her lip. “You’re very strong, Iris, and I trust that you know what’s best for yourself.”

Iris doesn’t speak for a moment. “You—Mom…” She trips over her words, letting out an angered noise. It’s self deprecating, Hitomi thinks, though she can’t be sure. A glance at her daughter reveals a steady glare on her face, directed at her fists on her lap.

“Hm?” Hitomi keeps her voice gentle.

“I’m going to die, aren’t I?” Iris’s voice is bitter. There's a quiet rage in the way she spits out the words.

Hitomi keeps her hand gripped on the wheel. Against her will, the first signs of tears prick at her eyes. She tries to take deep breaths, tries not to betray the fear that stings her every time she tries to think about the future. About Iris’s future, and about how Hitomi can’t save her.

“Oh, Iris…”

“You need money for the nanomachines, don’t you?” Iris continues, not paying attention to Hitomi at all. It seems so strange to Hitomi, for her sensitive, kind daughter to just stop caring. “You need someone who cares about me enough to give that money, and I think I know who.”

They pull up to the house, but Hitomi stays in the car after turning the engine off, twisting her body towards Iris to ask her questions. “Who? How do you know they’d give you the money? Are you okay?”

Iris doesn’t look at her. Her pink hair looks washed out in the light. Her jaw is set, her face determined, like she’s suddenly become an adult. It's like the trauma has forced her to become someone she’s not, and Hitomi suddenly feels the urge to reach across the seats and hold her, to let her know she’s not alone.

Hitomi wants to feel Iris’s warmth in her arms like she used to when Iris was young, when she was hurt and came for Hitomi for comfort. But _this_ Iris, this girl who Hitomi still loves with her entire heart and soul, just keeps talking.

“I talked to Ota and Mizuki about it, and the answer is obvious,” her tone is matter of fact. “Kaname Date is Mizuki’s caretaker now, and he received all of So Sejima’s money. He cares enough about Mizuki, and me, her friend, that he’d give at least some of that to us—to me.” Her lip twitches when she speaks of Date.

“I see…” Hitomi says, softly. “I don’t understand one thing, though. Why does he have So’s money?”

Iris turns to her with a calm look. “Apparently, he’s So’s son. Mizuki told me,” Iris smirks. “He just forgot all about it because he got amnesia. It’s so strange that he ended up killing his own father,” she scoffs.

Date… The detective that was following the case, who’s been so kind to both Iris and Hitomi despite not knowing them well. Hitomi finds herself blinking back the beginning of tears as she realizes that the money’s gone to someone who she can reason with. Who she’ll be able to ask.

In the middle of the calm that her relief has brought her, she doesn’t even question the scornful tone that Iris has when she speaks of it.

“Have you talked to him?” Hitomi asks, reaching over to place a hand on Iris’s shoulder, barely brushing it in case she doesn’t want that form of comfort.

“Mizuki says she did,” Iris says, pulling away from Hitomi and grinning as she opens the car door, letting in the crisp air. “ _And_ she and Ota both agreed that if he didn’t help me, they’d fight him for me. So I think that the deal as good as done.”

She shuts the door, prancing away to the door, while Hitomi pulls herself out of the car.

Hitomi has never felt so simultaneously confused and relieved. Confused, because Iris is slipping into the role of taking care of these things too quickly, and she's almost cruel while doing it. Relieved, because Hitomi’s daughter is strong and alive, and she will be for the foreseeable future.

Everything's worked out so perfectly. As Hitomi stands, stepping out of the car and into the cold air outside their house, she suddenly gets choked up, covering her mouth with her left hand to keep Iris from hearing the way her breaths stutter. Her daughter will live. Despite Hitomi’s greatest fears, despite the cruelties fate has placed upon them, Iris will be safe, once and for all.

Hitomi’s shoulders shake in the darkness. Iris is alive, and So Sejima, whose actions killed Manaka, is dead.

Iris is alive, and So is dead.

When Hitomi has collected herself, she goes to the door with Iris and smiles at her, thinking that she'll do anything, _anything,_ for her, to help her overcome the horrific things that happened to her.

The inside of their house is warm, lit by orange light that feels distinctly like home. Hitomi had placed more winter irises by the closed curtains, since Iris likes them so much, and she’d tried to make it as nice as possible for her return. Hitomi glances at the plates set out on the table, then glances away. She remembers the way she broke down briefly over the prospect of Iris’s death, and warmth blooms in her heart again as she thinks again that Iris will live.

It’s all she’s ever wanted for the past year since Iris’s tumor was found.

She glances over at Iris, standing next to her. Iris begins to gravitate towards the couch, a tiredness pulling on her that Hitomi can’t remember ever seeing in her daughter before.

“I actually saw Mizuki at school yesterday,” Hitomi says, as Iris sits. “She talked about what it’s like to live with Mr. Date. I didn’t know that they lived together until only a few days ago, so it was good to learn about it.”

“Hm.”

“She seems to really care about him,” Hitomi continues, picking up the plates on the table and moving them. She’s not sure if she should put them away yet, since Iris might be hungry later, but leaving them out doesn’t seem as good as putting them to the side temporarily. “She said that they went to the shrine together a lot. I… I started thinking about it, again. The shrine, I mean.”

Iris is quiet. Hitomi looks over, and sees Iris looking off to the side, her fingers fiddling with her black eyepatch. “The shrine where Uncle was…” Iris sounds distant, like she’s not really feeling the words in her heart.

Hitomi frowns. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought him up.” Sighing, she changes the topic. “Mizuki also said that when she visited you with Ota, you said that you were going to quit being an idol.”

“I did,” Iris stops touching the eyepatch, hand travelling upwards to touch her headset, the thing that keeps the tumor from spreading too much. “I can’t very well continue being an idol like this,” she sneers.

Hitomi doesn’t understand, but she decides to be gentle anyway, walking over to sit beside Iris on the couch, leaning back to rest alongside her. “That’s okay. I’ll support you with whatever you want to do. I always will.”

“I know,” Iris meets her eyes.

“Do you know what you’re going to do, other than being an idol?” Hitomi asks, resting her left hand on her own right shoulder, gently massaging the muscles.

Iris looks at Hitomi with a smile that holds hopes and dreams, a determined grin that feels so real, so true to Iris’s eternal hope for the future. As Iris opens her mouth, Hitomi is caught between thinking that this sort of expression is strange for her daughter, or not abnormal at all.

“I'm going to become the prime minister, of course.” She seems so serene, the look in her eye so steady, like she's known this would be her destiny for even longer than she'd dreamed of being an idol.

It sends a shiver down Hitomi’s spine for reasons she can’t quite understand.

(So Sejima looks at Hitomi Sagan and thinks, underneath the guise of the pink haired girl that he's tried to take on, that he _hates_ her. Hitomi Sagan took Manaka’s body and used it to blackmail him. Now, he needs that money to save his own life, but it's gone to the amnesiac man inside his son’s body.

Nothing is going right. _Saito_ did this to him, that terrible, awful, expensive boy who was never good enough, and the anger So feels is enough to make him hate the entire world, not just the naive woman who sobs in relief over a girl who's already dead.

All that’s left is for him to take hold of Iris Sagan’s future in a way she never would have. So Sejima will make the daughter that never should have existed into a politician for his own gain. For his own life, chained as it is to her temporarily dying body.

Pathetic.)

**Author's Note:**

> Not pictured: Date freaking out about suddenly getting So's money like "???????"
> 
> Also: in an interview, the AI staff joked about So in Iris's body becoming prime minister, so I thought I might as well roll with it :P


End file.
